In an age of anxiety and widespread discouragement as new generations look for happiness apart from God, Scripture urges us to “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15). 

Christian hope is not optimism or wishful thinking. Hope is a theological virtue, essential to our faith, pointing us toward our ultimate meaning and end: union with God. 

As the Church celebrates the Jubilee Year with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” Catholics worldwide are invited to pray and reflect on the virtue of hope. 

To assist those who wish to deepen their understanding and contemplation of this virtue, here is wisdom from theology professors, bishops, priests and popes to assist a prayerful reflection on hope.

 

Catechism on Hope

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines hope as “the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.” 

Paragraph 1818 of the Catechism continues, “The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man.”

Hope purifies our desires to order them to the Kingdom of heaven, keeps us from discouragement, sustains us during times of trial, and opens up our hearts in expectation of eternal beatitude. 

Dominican Father Ezra Sullivan, author of Heroic Habits: Discovering the Soul’s Potential for Greatness, pointed to St. Thomas Aquinas’ definition of hope. “Aquinas defines hope as the virtue by which we trust God to give us everything that we need to get us to heaven,” he told the Register.

In Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 encyclical, Spe Salvi (Saved in Hope), Pope Francis’ predecessor writes that “a distinguishing mark of Christians [is] the fact that they have a future: It is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness.” 

Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, Norway, explained it in this way: “Hope represents a destination, and living in hope is about having the certainty that life has a purpose, that it moves towards a goal and that, consequentially, the choices and the steps I make today are of importance and not just insignificant or a matter of waiting for something to happen.” 

“So, to live in hope, to walk towards hope, is to cultivate the certainty that life has a purpose, that life makes sense, and that sense is carried by love,” Bishop Varden added.

Christian hope assures us that our journey has a destination: eternal life with God.

 

Hope Is Misunderstood Today

In modern society, hope is often mistaken for mere positive thinking. However, as Father Sullivan pointed out, Christian hope is fundamentally different from a purely secular optimistic mindset.

“Hope does not focus on material outcomes such as our job, the money we have or our health,” Father Sullivan explained. 

As Father Mike Schmitz explained in The Catechism in a Year podcast, “the great thing about hope for Christians is that it doesn’t have to be rooted in any way in things going well for us.”

Instead, Christian hope focuses on getting to heaven and is rooted in the trust that God will give us everything we need to get us there.

Benedict XVI warned that placing one’s hopes in scientific progress or political ideologies can displace true hope, explaining in his hope-themed encyclical, “Biblical hope in the Kingdom of God has been displaced by hope in the kingdom of man, the hope of a better world.” But worldly solutions cannot fully satisfy the human heart. “Man has need of a hope that goes further. It becomes clear that only something infinite will suffice for him, something that will always be more than he can ever attain,” Benedict stated.

“Let us say once again: We need the greater and lesser hopes that keep us going day by day. But these are not enough without the great hope, which must surpass everything else. This great hope can only be God, who encompasses the whole of reality and who can bestow upon us what we, by ourselves, cannot attain,” he underscored.

 

How to Regain Hope

Despair is directly opposed to hope. It is the belief that God’s promises do not apply to us, that we are beyond his mercy. 

Dominican Sister Catherine Droste is a theology professor the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. Her research focuses on the virtues. She said that if someone is despairing, it can be helpful to step back and ask, “Do I believe in God? Why do I believe?” Reaffirming one’s faith is the first step to regaining hope.

“If I do believe in God, well, that’s the source of my hope,” she said. “Because who is God? He is my Creator. He wishes my good. He wishes me to achieve union with him. … We have to remind ourselves of who God is, that he loves us, so that we have this true hope, that he will help me in spite of the difficulty, and he will give me the grace.” 

 

How Hope Relates to Other Virtues

Hope is deeply connected to the other two theological virtues, faith and charity. Like the other theological virtues, hope is infused at baptism, increased in the sacraments, and reinfused with confession.

Hope is also linked to virtues such as patience, fortitude and magnanimity, as well as a particular gift of the Holy Spirit, “fear of the Lord,” which is the first stage of wisdom. Sister Catherine explains that fear of the Lord is not a fear of punishment, but a deep reverence for God and a desire never to be separated from him.

 

Hope in an Age of Anxiety

Despair and presumption are the two extremes that distort hope. Father Schmitz explained in his podcast that “the extreme of presumption means that I don’t really need God. I can do this on my own. … Despair is ‘I don’t have Him. He’s not there.’”

Sister Catherine notes that anxiety is often linked to a misplaced reliance on ourselves, rather than on God. “Part of that anxiety is pride because I think I can do it without God,” she said. True hope reminds us that we do not have to bear life’s burdens alone.

“With hope, there is a tranquility that should come in spite of the difficulty because I have confidence in God,” she said. “I face the difficulty, I face suffering, but because of God I know that is not the end.”

 

Prayer Is Connected to Hope

Hope is nourished in prayer. The Catechism reminds the faithful, “Hope is expressed and nourished in prayer, especially in the Our Father, the summary of everything that hope leads us to desire” (1820).

Benedict XVI called prayer the “school of hope.” He explained in Spe Salvi, “St. Augustine describes prayer as an exercise of desire. Man was created for greatness — for God himself; he was created to be filled by God. But his heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. It must be stretched.” Through prayer, our hearts expand to receive the hope God offers.

“For prayer to develop this power of purification, it must on the one hand be something very personal, an encounter between my intimate self and God, the living God. On the other hand, it must be constantly guided and enlightened by the great prayers of the Church and of the saints, by liturgical prayer, in which the Lord teaches us again and again how to pray properly,” Benedict XVI wrote.

 

Hope When Prayers Appear Unanswered

Sister Catherine explained that it is important to remember that “prayer is not to convince God. Prayer does not change God’s mind. Prayer is about our hope and confidence in God. And prayer is to help us remember that we rely on God.”

“God will answer our prayers, as long as they are good. We have trust and hope in him. He will answer, but he may not answer the way we want him. So we also have to remember prayer is also about changing our minds to conform with God's will,” she added.

“We need to check on ourselves on: What is our prayer about? Am I praying that I am open to God’s will? That he will respond in the best way possible to my prayer — because he will. … God can bring good out of evil because God is greater than any evil. Our prayer is helping us to open our eyes to see as God sees.”

 

Hope Amid Suffering

Hope keeps us from discouragement during moments of suffering. 

“Hope, as it points us to eternal life, shows us that even when there is suffering or difficulty in this world, that it gains an eternal significance in light of our union with Christ,” Father Sullivan explained.

Sister Catherine recommended offering God our suffering in prayer, saying, “Lord purify it. Take it. Help me to see you working through it. Help me to allow you to work through that suffering that I’m going through, so that your will can be done in me in whatever I’m going through right now.’”

St. Paul describes hope as an anchor (Hebrews 6:19). “With the virtue of hope, we anchor our hearts in heaven,” Father Sullivan said. “It is what keeps us stable amidst the waves and the winds and everything that threatens to crash our boat. … It ties my heart to God.”

 

How to Grow in Hope

One of the best ways to grow in hope is by making acts of trust in God. Father Sullivan recommended praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, especially repeating the phrase “Jesus, I trust in you.” 

Also further meditate on Christian hope by integrating some theological reflections on hope into spiritual reading. (Here is a Jubilee reading list on Christian hope.)

Sister Catherine emphasized gratitude in prayer. “If I’m grateful and I recognize everything that I received from God, my life, my family, my gifts, my talents … that gives me hope.”

She also encouraged praying the Act of Hope prayer, “O Lord God, I hope by your grace for the pardon of all my sins and after life here to gain eternal happiness because you have promised it who are infinitely powerful, faithful, kind and merciful. In this hope I intend to live and die. Amen.” 

As Pope St. John Paul II reminded the faithful, “Never, ever give up on hope.”

 

Sharing Hope With Others 

Pope Francis has encouraged Catholics to be “missionaries of hope” during this Jubilee year. 

As members of the Body of Christ, we can give hope to one another. Whether through prayer, acts of kindness, or offering our suffering to God, we can become bearers of hope in a world that so desperately needs it.

The papal bull for the Jubilee is full of ideas for how to offer hope to others, including offering “a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed, in the knowledge that, in the Spirit of Jesus, these can become, for those who receive them, rich seeds of hope.”

Let this Jubilee Year be a time of renewed trust in God’s promises. As Benedict XVI reminded us, “The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.”